Man who gives 75 cents to homeless man is arrested by police, searched, questioned for over an hour

[davidn3600]

Greg Snider was in a Houston, Texas parking lot, on the phone making a business call. While in the lot, a homeless man approached his car and asked for change. Snider gave him 75 cents and then drove off. KPRC Local 2 News reported on the shocking thing that happened next.

When Snider pulled onto a nearby freeway, a police car pulled him to the side. Greg was surprised by how aggressive the officer was, telling KPRC, “He's screaming. He's yelling. He's telling me to get out of the car. He's telling me to put my hands on the hood…They're like, 'We saw you downtown. We saw what you did.’ And I was like, 'Are you kidding me? I gave a homeless man 75 cents.'"

He was dragged out of his car and handcuffed. So what was it that police insisted Mr. Snider had done? Give that homeless man drugs. Again, he didn’t. Snider only gave the man some money.

Snider agreed to let police search his car for drugs, and they did so for an hour while Greg remained handcuffed. In that time, ten more police cars showed up and pulled over. The search was not fruitful – no drugs were found in the car. That is, because, as previously mentioned, Snider didn’t have any drugs to give. Snider was not happy about the damage police did to his car, or that the police were actually laughing about the mistake.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/man-gives-change-to-homeless-person--is-handcuffed-and-held-by-police-for-an-hour-223247155.html


Oh...but we don't live in a police state, says some here!

[Xipe Totec]

1. Freedom of assembly...

This is pretty bad.

[eggplant]

15. I believe you meant Freedom of Disassembly.

At least his car has that freedom.

[Xipe Totec]

16. No Disassemble!

[liberalhistorian]

25. OMG, does that take me back to

college years, lol! "Disassemble--dead? Disassemble--DEAD! NO Disassemble number five! NO!" It was a great movie and raised interesting questions on the development of "thought" in machines that have now been standard questions for years (I think Asimove first raised them in "I, Robot&quot . But more to the point of this OP, I remember the scenes toward the end where the military couldn't wait to "disassemble" number five and aggressively went after him and the Ally Sheedy and Steve Guttenberg characters who were running with and hiding him, and cheered when they "disassembled" him, or, at least, thought they had.

[MurrayDelph]

68. I love the bridge in the background

the Astoria-Megler Bridge is the part of US101 that connects Astoria, Oregon (where I am at the moment) to Washington State.

[grahamhgreen]

2. Others would say a fascist heartless war mongering police state devoid of ethics and morality.

[JoePhilly]

3. If we lived in a police state, we probably would not be reading about

it.

This guy would still be in jail.

And he would not have been able to file a complaint of any kind.

Other than that, yea, police state.

The state will probably have to pay for the damages.

[WinkyDink]

6. You have shockingly low standards for police actions.

[JoePhilly]

32. So, do we think the police stopped this guy because he

is a political dissident?

Did they stop him for some other reason, a reason they don't want to share?

In a police state, the police don't act randomly. And if they stop some one, claiming one reason (like, "we thought you were selling drugs&quot , there is some alternative reason.

I'd suggest that some on DU have a very low standard for screaming police state.

[thefool_wa]

48. No its worse..

They did it because they get a kick out of pushing people around.

[JoePhilly]

49. Ahhh ... so NOT a police state.

A few cops abusing their badge for "kicks" does not a police state make.

[thefool_wa]

73. Unfortunately no...

Drug laws allow the bullies to do they want effectively making a police state through intimidation. Its both.

[heaven05]

79. unfortunately

it's not random, not a "few" abusing their authority. This type of police harassment is happening more and more. Killing people without justification. Fullerton Ca. comes to mind. It is becoming more a fascist police state everyday. Wake up! !%ers get the goldmine, 99%ers get the shaft.

[JDPriestly]

50. They thought they had a drug dealer. That's the general excuse for stopping people for no reason.

An alternative theory is that they wanted to discourage him from helping the homeless in the future.

They stopped him without so much as a reasonable suspicion of any criminal activity. That is certainly a sign of overzealous police action.

[JoePhilly]

52. The enforcement officers in a police state ...

... would have an some other motive. The police in a police state do not operate randomly.

They wanted to stop him from helping the homeless, why? What larger purpose does that serve? The police state would have told the police to do this, they would not be acting alone.

You last sentence is correct. Overzealous, sure ... police state, na.

[thefool_wa]

74. It is concievable

That a police state could exist, not for the purpose of furthering/snuffing out a specific idea, but merely to enforce whatever laws are developed through intimidation and abuse of power.

Add to this the rapidly increasing number of for-profit prisons and you have all the justification for a police state you need.

[MannyGoldstein]

28. Well...

Coverage of Kristallnacht:

[JoePhilly]

33. So, numerous stores and temples being looted and burned ... is the

same as one guy being stopped, detained, and then released hours later?

Also, that's a US paper reporting on an event on the other side of the Atlantic.

Tell me, can you find a similar article about the guy stopped by the cops above, in a news outlet in Europe?

That making any headlines?

[MannyGoldstein]

35. Whoosh!... BANG!!!

The goalposts just broke the sound barrier.

[JoePhilly]

36. Equating the nazis, with a couple cops abusing their power,

is what broke the sound, and logic barrier.

[rhett o rick]

30. Is your point that we should be thankful that we dont live in a total police state? nm

[treestar]

31. It's that police who are doing wrongful actions

is not the same thing as a "police state." Joe Philly is right about what it would take to have a police state. Abusive police are a problem, but that does not make the US a "police state." That is a term that has a meaning.

[JoePhilly]

34. Thank you. nt

[dogman]

51. What is a state that tolerates police abuse?

One whose top officers even encourage such behavior? One that allows that behavior to go unpunished and preferably unquestioned? The 4th amendment unfortunately has no real defenders in the mainstream. This is not just a limited local problem.

[treestar]

54. It is a republic with some problems with individual police

and there are remedies! There is an attorney in LA who specializes in cases against the LAPD! Anyone with any type of case can sue. In a police state, you do not have that.

And you can challenge any of their actions in court under the bill of rights and the case law. That is not so in police states. Get familiar with the term.

[dogman]

56. I'm sure Kelly Thomas takes comfort in all that.

You describe what should be, not what is. You might do some of that if you had the time and the money and the willingness to withstand retribution. Who do you appeal to with your concerns about the NSA? Is it only a police state if it's not that bad (compared to what)? Hell, I remember surrendering my 4th amendment rights just to have a job (piss and breath tests with no reasonable suspicion). I am familiar with the reality.

[A Simple Game]

70. Darn right there are remedies!!! If I was the shift super, or higher, the first thing I would

want to know is why one handcuffed suspect merited the attention of 11 police cars. I would then be the darling of the mayor or other official in charge of the budget because I would layoff half of them and give the other half a week off to think about their actions. Look at the money I would save the government by getting rid of unneeded cops!

[Feral Child]

53. You're claiming

that the two issues are mutually exclusive?

Doesn't it argue that a state that allows the police to be absolutely arbitrary and abusive is a "police-state".

I would assume that any police-state would harass the homeless and any benefactors. The most dangerous group to any police-state is the indigent; they have little to lose and everything to gain by revolution.

[treestar]

55. No, the term in generally reserved to a certain meaning

Our country is not perfect, but - you can sue police, challenge their actions in court, and they will be disciplined - these cases are reported in the media. That would hardly be so in a real police state.

[Feral Child]

61. In one narrow interpretation, perhaps.

Like, as if you were applying the most conservative, restrictive definition of the term. Thing is, despotic states don't necessarily spring up overnight, and it's often difficult to point to a tic on the continuum and state, "This moment is when a state is a "police-state".

Denial becomes easier when you can arbitrarily demand absolutes.

Yes, the police can be sued, if one has the wherewithal, but it's a damned costly gamble. It's also quite clear that most complaints against police are investigated in-house and justice is seldom served.

[Egalitarian Thug]

46. No, we should be thankful that our masters have learned from their mistakes.

Or maybe just that it didn't happen to me, so it's no big deal.

[Comrade Grumpy]

69. Well, okay, then, let's just say America is getting kind of police state-ish.

[carla]

71. Are you

always this absurd? Grow up, see what is happening around you. One day it will be you, maybe they will shoot you because you turned left without an indicator lamp, or strip search you in a hospital for 9 hours for nothing, or shoot your family dog dead because it barked, or rape your daughter and throw her from a speeding police cruiser, or shoot dead a deaf friend for trying to communicate he is deaf? YOU need to wake the fuck up. America is NOT the country i grew up in anymore. It is a shithole run by the worst of Amerikkkans. Police state? you passed that 10 years ago. I guess all the mind control tricks do work, esp. on JoePhilly.

[cui bono]

4. At least he didn't get several forced enemas at the hospital.

Like that other innocent guy.

[WinkyDink]

7. Don't forget the actual colonoscopy.

[hootinholler]

40. And then the bill for it n/t

[Logical]

5. True american hero's! LOL.

[former9thward]

8. He should not have agreed to the search.

Always dangerous.

[Not Sure]

18. Totally agree

I learned my lesson with that one. I had just started college in Georgia and still had Florida plates on my car and made regular trips back to see my folks. Long hair, rock band stickers on the rear windshield, and always listening to music pretty loud. Anyway, I got pulled over by the Lagrange police for a rolling stop coming off the highway to get gas and I was detained and questioned by one cop while the other one searched my car. I was 18 and stupid, so I consented to the search, but I didn't do drugs or smoke and none of my friends did, so I had nothing in there. When the searching cop produced a bag of white powder, I threw a fit and screamed at him that he was out of his mind if he thought I was going to fall for that. The cops then moved the questioning to a recruiting speech, trying to talk me into ratting out anyone back in Florida I knew that wanted to move drugs (again, I didn't know anyone like that so that was really weird) and anyone at my college that wanted to get drugs. It was a pretty fucked up experience and since then I never consent to searches.

[davidn3600]

20. This can never be viewed too many times...

[ybbor]

23. I think it should be required viewing in every civics class

Students should learn this in school! Citizens need to know their rights and stop allowing this BS to continue. If every student was required to view this video,every American would be better off for it, well maybe not the cops, but I believe NWA spoke to that in the '80's.

It seems like there are no good apples remaining in the law enforcement profession. Those that do exist seem to be quite the anomaly.

[msanthrope]

37. Absolutely. nt

[diabeticman]

9. What the hell is going on with this country?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. What do you expect?

Fans of this show are joining the force:

[Enthusiast]

63. I won't say it.

[theHandpuppet]

10. Don't we all feel safer now?

Thank goodness -- now I can sleep knowing I'm safe from these criminals.

[Jefferson23]

11. Sick bastards. I hope he sues them. n/t

[840high]

12. Sue the hell out of them.

[TxGrandpa]

14. Houston, Texas and police says it all.... n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

76. Really?

I live here in Houston. Our mayor is a Democrat, and she's in a committed relationship with a woman. Yeah... I'm thinking more idiot cop than "Houston says it all..."

[Android3.14]

17. Must of been a slow day in Houston

Sheesh. Eleven cop cars to take care of one suspected drug dealer.

[liberalhistorian]

26. That was one of my first thoughts, too,

let's say, for the sake of argument, that he HAD given the poor guy drugs (and if I were homeless, I think I'd be wanting to do a LOT of drugs just to endure it!). Why the fuck would they still need eleven fucking cop cars to take care of it? Meanwhile, REAL crimes with REAL victims go lacking for support. This war on drugs and the squeeze everyone and everything that moves for profit from it has got to stop.

[Doc Holliday]

78. Actually, this is pretty close to

the ratio for a simple weed bust here in Lubbocktexas. A couple years ago, I personally witnessed an unarmed fifteen-year-old Latina get busted for less than half an ounce of herb....for some reason, that bust rated seven patrol cars.

Good thing there's no real crime in Lubbock.

[George II]

19. If my parents lived in Houston they'd have been arrested a few times a day!

[lunasun]

21. Comments on link are interesting and scary -lots of similar experiences

waste of tax payer's money too

[LibDemAlways]

22. The other day I was in the parking lot

of my local market when 6 police cars pulled up with sirens blaring and red lights flashing. Someone had called 911 after spotting a teenage girl drinking from a beer can outside the store. Two cops cuffed her and shoved her in the back of one of the police cars while a bunch of cops stood around talking for about 15 minutes. No threat to anybody. What a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

[progressoid]

29. OMG. A beer!

Thank God they got that threat to society off the streets.

[Brigid]

24. *Sigh* You know the old saying:

No good deed goes unpunished.

[RKP5637]

27. It's surprising they did not find drugs in his car

the cops had planted as they searched.

[B Calm]

38. They do this shit in Michigan too.

[Warren Stupidity]

39. "Snider agreed to let police search his car for drugs" - never do that.

Am I being detained?

If yes, request a lawyer and refuse to answer any questions until your lawyer is present.

If no, leave. Immediately. Do not speak to the officer.

If you are being detained and they ask to search your car do not consent to the search. If you are not being detained and they ask to search your car, do not consent to the search.

You have nothing to gain from cooperating with the police investigating you.

[FlyByNight]

41. No good deed goes unpunished

The cops had nothing better to do? Like, bust a pot smoker or something?

I wonder how many prisons are privatized in Texas?

[frwrfpos]

42. police are there to protect the 1%

They are also there to humilate and control ordimary citizens..especially ones that try to help other like this guy was..and the few police who are actually good do nothing to stop the large majprity of bad ones.

Yes it is a police state and yes its corrupt to the core

[Lady Freedom Returns]

43. Just to add: There are some places the guy would have been given a ticket to boot!

Many places have made it where you could end up paying a fine in the three digit range for giving anything to a homeless person.

Check with your locals city's ordnances to find out what it says for your area.

[struggle4progress]

44. Inclined as I am to believe the story, having had unfortunate experiences with Texas officers

in my more youthful long-hair days, I have, after years of trying to sort out stories in GD and LBN, reached the conclusions that one-sided accounts are not necessarily accurate and that determining the truth of a report often requires very hard work

Here, so far, we have only Mr Snider's account of the alleged incident

[reddread]

59. chuckle. in other words-

[struggle4progress]

60. Actually, in other words, it is my view that the facts, in any case, can only be established

by a careful and determined effort, not by mere reaction to a single account

[reddread]

64. as long as the "facts" are subject to long distance dispute

in a world full of liars and apologists,
The Question is Moot!

even when on scene video PROVES what naked violence police dispense to the homeless in cities around the country (ok, just in the "liberal" stronghold of CA) come on. The Question is Moot!

[struggle4progress]

65. As I haven't seen video supporting Snider's allegation,

perhaps you could kindly provide such video

[reddread]

66. I can do a lot better than that, and have repeatedly

The brutal murderous beating to death of an individual in Fullerton.
The just as brutal attack on Glen Beaty in Fresno.
BOTH are on video. I cant even stomach to post them again.
You want to see a .75 cent donor getting hassled by cops?
The Question is Moot!

[struggle4progress]

72. I thought you were claiming Snider's allegation against Houston police was supported

by videotape

Fullerton is a 1500 mile drive from Houston, and Fresno is even further

Perhaps you own some magic goggles that enable you to view video of an event in Fullerton and thereby see the details of some other event in Houston?

[reddread]

80. not even reading glasses are needed to see through you n/t

[struggle4progress]

81. It is a horrid personality defect (isn't it?) to imagine that one is obliged to do somewhat more

than to assume the world accords entirely with our preconceptions of it or to think we might have some obligation to obtain different accounts of an alleged event, when there are multiple persons involved

[reddread]

84. those who disregard history, etc etc n/t

[GETPLANING]

45. HPD are a gang of thieves

I have lived in Houston for many years and seen many scams they run. Traffic tickets and small drug arrests are their biggest sources of income. Oh, and they shamelessly lie in court.

[Amonester]

47. In a twisted way, he's lucky they didn't 'plant' any...

... to kind of just 'exonorating' themselves of any wrong-doing ...

Happened once to a close friend of mine...

[blkmusclmachine]

57. Houston is thowing up another 1,500 surveillance cameras around the city--parks, malls, recreation &

sports centers, you name it. Like their 50,000 surveillance cameras inside stores, at intersections, and dotting the highways and interstates every quarter-mile isn't enough!!!

[blkmusclmachine]

58. Thanks, "terr'ists" (you know, those guys holed up in caves in Afghanistan, who caused 9/11/2001) ..

[reddread]

85. bank rolled by Saudi royalty who are allowed slaves in the US?

those terrorists?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

62. I'm not going to click on the link. Let me guess...

Greg Snider is black. Am I right?

[ScreamingMeemie]

77. You are wrong.

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ZAUda_hclnBb9p20MXBKaQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTU1MA--/


Houston has gotten rather progressive; however, we have some jerkwad cops on the HPD.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

82. I am wrong....and amazed (nt)

[gopiscrap]

67. Fucking god damn cops are out of control

and they wonder why people hate them!

[FiveGoodMen]

83. oderint dum metuant

"let them hate, so long as they fear"

I'm pretty sure that's their attitude.

[gopiscrap]

86. exactly

[Nevernose]

75. The exact same thing has happened to me

I was living in a bad neighborhood in Las Vegas. I was hanging out with a friend while he waited for his mom to drop off some money. We were waiting in the parking lot of my apartment complex, neat a major road, maybe 25 feet from the door to my house. My downstairs neighbor came by, we exchanged pleasantries, I gave her a light. I sat in my car, rolled the windows down, and turned on the radio.

Metro's vice squad rolled up in an unmarked blue van (from which they had been spying on us), along with three or four cruisers. Lots of screaming and gun pointing.

An hour in handcuffs, occasionally nei slammed into the hood of the car. "Which is it? Hookers or drugs? What are you doing in this neighborhood."

"Uh, you're the cop. Shouldn't you have figured out what I did wrong BEFORE you put me in handcuffs?"

"Why are you associating with this person? We know he's a homosexual. You like boys? Are you trying to buy a gay prostitute?"

"Dude. I've known this guy since we were, like, twelve years old. What the fuck do I care if he's gay? And why do you assume he's a gay prostitute?"

"What are you doing in this neighborhood, then? Buying drugs?"

"That's my apartment there, right up there. Second floor. I live here. Look at my driver's license."

"Why would you live in a neighborhood like this?"

"It's cheap."

"Why were you talking to a known prostitute then? The woman: she's a prostitute and you talked with her for several minutes. Were you negotiating?"

"Dude. She lives downstairs from me. She's my neighbor. We talk every day. I don't give a shit what she does for a living. Everybody's got to have a job."

"Can we search your car then? Prove you don't have any drugs on you."

"Uh, no. I mean, you're probably going to search it anyway, but I have to say no on this one."

"If you're hiding something, we'll find it eventually, so you might as well just make it easy on yourself and tell us where to look. Why don't you want us to look?"

"No reason, dude. I just like the Constitution. Search and seizure, warrants and probable cause and that stuff. I just like exercising my rights as an American."

"Let him go."

And then I went to pick my daughter up from kindergarten. It was not my first run-in with the police, nor was it my last. It was just one of many, many experiences that leave me with very little respect for law enforcement.